Jerzy wrote:

Well, if we talk about chess prodigies like Capablanka or Reshevsky, they
played on a master level already being well under 12.
But on the other side are the players who started playing chess relatively
late in their lives and against the will of their families or their coaches
and became professional chess players.
For sure Rubinstein belonged to the category. He started playing chess only
when he was 16 but became one of the greatest chessplayers of all times.
Of course today we see other tendency : kids are trained heavily from the
early age and if they happen to be chess prodigies like young Kramnik or
Karyakin it`s no problem. They developped their chess skills naturally.

But in this way we may lose many new RubinSteins who start to play seriously
when they grow up a little

You miss the point.

Rubinstein started playing at age 16, (Tchigorin even later), but they
progressed rapidly, and weren't nonprogressing patzers in between ages
16-23. I am talking about kids whose parents bring them at age 6-7-8 to
chess club and which fail to show any significant progress until age
10-12, but still float in 1600-1800 area.

Regards,
Jerzy



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